midwife
Americannoun
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a person trained to assist women in childbirth.
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a person or thing that produces or aids in producing something new or different.
verb (used with object)
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to assist in the birth of (a baby).
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to produce or aid in producing (something new).
to midwife a new generation of computers.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of midwife
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English midwif, from mid “with, accompanying” ( Old English; see also meta-) + wif “woman” ( Old English wīf; see wife)
Explanation
A midwife is someone whose job involves helping women give birth to babies. Some pregnant women get their prenatal care from a midwife, as well as delivering their babies with a midwife's help. There are different categories of midwives — lay midwives attend home births, and nurse midwives also assist birthing women at hospitals and birth centers. In either case, a midwife is trained to understand the process of birth and techniques to make it easier and safe for mothers and newborn babies. Midwife literally means "woman who is with," or "woman assisting," from the Middle English mid, "with," and wif, "woman."
Vocabulary lists containing midwife
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
An unnamed Ethiopian assistant professor was selected by ICM for its Midwife Leaders Executive Sponsorship Programme, but was rejected for having an "inadequate financial bank statement and an unreliable purpose of travel", the organisers said.
From Barron's • Jun. 12, 2026
As Alanna Skuse writes in “The Surgeon, the Midwife, and the Quack,” in the Renaissance, “health begins at home.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 6, 2026
The “Call the Midwife Holiday Special 2025,” like its many predecessors, is humming with catastrophe, a virtual Santa’s workshop of traumatic events.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 23, 2025
Midwife Ximena Rojas and her team of two doulas run a birthing center and offer sexual and reproductive care to migrants.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 7, 2025
That jetty wall conceals the inner harbor, he realized, as the Merry Midwife was pulling down her sail.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
